Witness claims her boyfriend was stabbed to death over a cigarette lighter

An argument over a cigarette lighter in a transient camp led to the fatal stabbing of a 50-year-old man Saturday night, according to court documents filed Monday.

Kyle E. Linhart's girlfriend told police that the two were at a campsite beneath a North Vancouver Avenue overpass near the Columbia Slough, drinking beer with another man that evening. Billy C. Bentley, 53, holding a mostly-empty whiskey bottle, asked to borrow her lighter.

She said she handed it to Bentley, but when she asked for it back, Bentley got mad and pulled a knife on her. The woman said Linhart came to her defense, picking up a piece of wood and telling Bentley something like, "Don't you mess with my woman," a court affidavit says.

Bentley jabbed Linhart at least twice in the chest with a 5- to 6-inch folding knife, and walked off, the victim's girlfriend told police. She said she cut her finger when she tried to grab the knife away from Bentley.

Linhart's girlfriend ran onto North Vancouver to flag down a motorist for help about 8 p.m.

Later Saturday night, Bentley showed up at a friend's home with fresh blood on his hands. He told his friend he might be going back to prison because he had stabbed a guy he lived with under a bridge, but wasn't sure if he was dead, a court affidavit says.

Police arrested Bentley on Sunday at a transient camp near Farragut Street underneath Vancouver Avenue, about a quarter-mile south of the crime scene.

On Monday, Bentley pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated murder. He was charged with aggravated murder because he had previously been convicted of murder on Aug. 11, 1978, court documents show. The homicide occurred in 1977 at the Airport Tavern, 6624 N.E. 47th Ave.

Bentley has been on parole since 1992, when he was let out of prison. Bentley has had no significant arrest history with Portland police since being paroled, police said. His next court date is June 10.